


Zombies, Make! Halloween Prompts

by bos10blonde



Series: Cap Five and the Roommates [4]
Category: Zombies Run!
Genre: Fluff, Halloween Prompts, Zombies Make, and then spooky aesthetic ramblings, graveyard, pumpkin patch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-09 06:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27309904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bos10blonde/pseuds/bos10blonde
Summary: Hosted by puptart, thank you so much! Two direct, unedited copy/pastes of the fics I wrote in 90 minutes. Mostly fluff, no spoilers past S1M4. Happy Halloween!
Series: Cap Five and the Roommates [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2005711
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	1. It's the Great Pumpkin, Sam Yao!

**Author's Note:**

> From the Halloween 2020 Zombies Make challenge, hosted by puptart. Check out the zombies make tag on Tumblr for more info, more art, and the prompts! Thank you so much! Two direct, unedited copy/pastes of the fics I wrote in 90 minutes. Mostly fluff, no spoilers past S1M4. The first fic is pure cotton candy, the second one a little spookier but still not much angst. Happy Halloween!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zombies Make, 31 Oct 2020, Round 1. Prompt: a picture of a bunch of pumpkins.

Five made her way through Abel, walking just a bit ahead of her two roommates, excitement quickening her pace. As usual, Cora was smiling, waving at other residents of Abel headed towards the farm area. Rowan looked less enthusiastic, but had carefully dressed for field work anyway.

Five breathed in deeply, trying to gather up as much of the autumnal air as she could. The dusty smell of freshly-fallen leaves tickled the back of her nose. Before the apocalypse, she had always loved fall—or autumn, as all the Brits around her like to correct her. Five loved everything about the season—cozy baked goods in a world with easy access to spices and flour, being able to see the faintest outlines of her breath in the morning, the air of excitement leading into the holidays. She’d loved to walk through forests for hours, back then, until the bright colors of the trees ran together in her memory. Safe within the walls of Abel, Five didn’t have to worry about the crunching in protest beneath her feet. If she’d been out on a mission, though…

Fall looked different in a post-Z world. Most of the usual holiday luxuries were gone, stripped away in favor of survival and longer hours in the fields to bring in as much of the harvest as they could. Crunching leaves were useful to pinpoint the location of approaching zombies, sure, but there was no way for the runners to move through them quietly, either. The forest runs Five had loved taking on supply runs in the spring had turned even more dangerous than usual. Most of the runners had grown to hate one of the most pervasive sounds of fall.

Just one more thing the zombie apocalypse had taken away.

Five shook her head at herself firmly. _Don’t think about that right now. There’ll be plenty of time for that later._

Right now, it was time for the pumpkin harvest.

Abel only had a small crop of pumpkins, tucked away in a corner of one of the potato fields. Janine had resisted the idea of planting any pumpkins at all, citing the low amount of nutritional return for the amount of care and watering they required. Sam had worked so hard to convince Janine of their value for morale—“Think of the kids!” he’d cried, “You can’t deny them the whole pumpkin patch experience when they live on a literal farm!” Five didn’t have the heart to tell Sam that, based on the frequency with which Sara could be found gardening along the borders of this particular field, he might not have been the only one to make her change her mind.

Still, Janine had indeed relented, saying that people were welcome to each pick their own pumpkin as long as they delivered the innards to the kitchens. Now there were about four dozen orange-yellow gourds scattered across the half-acre of earth Five and her roommates now approached. The site was already swarming with other residents of Abel. Just as Sam had said, pretty much all of the children were out, chasing each other between the rows or hunting for the biggest, yellowest, prettiest, or bumpiest pumpkin of the lot. Their parents mostly hung in a loose knot off to the side, talking happily.

In a post-Z world, even the smallest bits of orangey brightness made a world of difference.

When the trio reached their destination, they immediately split up as if they had planned it. Cora was drawn to the makeshift face-painting booth one of the schoolteachers had set up with some donated makeup, eager to help with the loose line of chattering kids. Rowan had been assigned to farm duty that day, so she had already started heading towards the toolshed. Five just headed for the pumpkins, trying to find the perfect one.

About a row in, she looked up to see Ed a few yards away, pointing at her. Much to Five’s embarrassment, he’d taken to pointing Five out to Molly at any opportunity. He’d told Five once that he wanted Molly to be able to recognize the person who had saved both of their lives. At the time, Five had blushed so hard she couldn’t respond, but she’d be a liar if she said she didn’t have an especially soft spot for the little girl. Ed noticed Five had seen them and waved, so Five picked her way across the row of crops towards them.

“Hi, Molly!” Five chirped. “Hi, Ed! Are you guys gonna pick out a pumpkin?”

Molly nodded shyly up at Five with a smile that melted the runners’ heart. Five squatted down onto her heels to get closer to her level, then examined the nearest pumpkin with exaggerated seriousness. “What do you think about this one, huh? Looks nice and orange. Should we look for one that’s bigger? Or smaller?”

“Bigger!” Molly shouted, tapping the top of the pumpkin with one tiny hand.

Ed and Five laughed at the child’s enthusiasm.

“That’s only because I’m the one who’s going to have to carry it, Molly,” Ed said with a pretend grimace at Five.

“Well it’s a good thing we’ve only got manageable-sized pumpkins around here, then,” Five responded, standing back up to survey the field. “Kind of a shame, really. I was hoping there’d be at least one giant one. I’m always looking for the ‘great pumpkin, Charlie Brown!’”

Ed looked at her oddly. “Who?”

Five’s eyes widened. “Who—you mean Charlie Brown? Is that not a thing in the UK?”

Ed shrugged. “The cartoon, yeah? I’ve heard of him, but I’m not sure what he has to do with pumpkins…Molly, don’t try to grab that—let me pick those up for you, yeah?”

A rounder, yellower pumpkin the next row over had caught Molly’s eye, and she’d darted over to start grabbing at it in the way only small children do. Ed smiled briefly at Five before leaving to follow his daughter. Five waved at him and continued in the opposite direction.

A half dozen pumpkin examinations later, Five caught sight of a friendly face at the corner of a field.

“Sam!” Five called, breaking out into a grin and jogging over to him. She caught her enthusiasm just as she reached him and self-consciously slowed her steps to what she thought was a more casual pace and tried to tease him instead. “You’re blending in the with pumpkins especially well today.”

Sam had smiled at Five’s approach as well, although he looked a little puzzled at the jibe until he realized he was referring to his trademark orange hoodie.

“Well, you know me, Five, always gotta be in season,” he responded, wishing he’d thought of something cleverer to say. Five was clearly excited about something, and Sam was finding it hard to tear his focus away from her unrestrained grin.

“Have you heard of “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown?” Five asked as they fell into step walking down one of the rows.

“No?” Sam said quizzically, wondering if this was some sort of a test. “I mean, I’ve sort of heard of the phrase, but I’m not really sure what you mean.”

“Oh, man, it really must just be an American thing!” Five said. “I can’t believe you guys don’t have it here—it’s so good, it’s so sweet! It’s this cartoon of the comic strip characters, you know, Charlie Brown, and it’s Halloween…” Five was chattering excitedly, and had moved a few steps ahead so she could turn to Sam and gesture broadly at the pumpkin patch. “And the kids are trick-or-treating, except Linus, who’s waiting for the Great Pumpkin, so all the other kids—oh, I don’t want to spoil it!”

Sam laughed. “I’m not sure that will matter, I’m not sure if we’d have a copy of it.”

“Oh, but you’ve got to—it’s super old, it was on for _ever_ before the apocalypse. Surely someone’s got a backup, do you think?” Five looked a bit wistful, and Sam was suddenly determined to hunt down whatever cartoon it was she was talking about.

“Well, look – how about we look for it in the rec room?” Sam asked tentatively. “We can grab our pumpkins and see if we’ve got a copy?”

Five literally bounced on the spot with excitement before she could stop herself. “That’d be great! And if not,” she conceded. “I’m sure we can find something else to watch?” The look on her face was hopeful and happy.

Five realized maybe all the joy of the season hadn’t gone, after all.


	2. Superstition Ain't the Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Round 2; Multiple prompts! Including an ambient noise track, a photo of a spiderweb over a window overlooking a church, and a picture of a black cat in a graveyard.

Superstition

“Alright, Five, everything looks clear from my end. The safehouse is just a few blocks away from where you are now. You’ll want to keep going straight ahead and take your second right…yeah, that’s the one. Okay, now you’re looking for a house that’s, well, a bit more intact than the others. Should be number…” Sam held on to the last syllable for a moment, and Five could hear the faint suggestion of shuffling papers through her headset. “Thirteen A. That’s not spooky at all, eh? Luck you, out on Halloween night and staying in Number Thirteen.” Sam chuckled at the coincidence. Five rolled her eyes, even though she knew there were no cameras here to pick up the gesture.

Five located the house with a bit of difficulty—the “3” had fallen off the mailbox, and enough shingles from the slanted grey roof had been torn away that it was hard to tell which house could be called the most “intact”. After a couple of false starts down the wrong sidewalks, though, Five spotted a large charcoal “A” with a square around it scrawled onto a doorframe. That was the symbol the runners had adopted to mark Abel Township safe houses.

As Five slowed to a walk and approached the door, she keyed her microphone three times, signaling to Sam to be quiet until she gave him another cue. She hadn’t heard anything indicating the presence of either zombies or people the entire time she’d been in this small village. Five had had to turn off her usual running music to scope out the place; scouts had indicated there were some traveling survivors in the area, and they thought they might have sought shelter in one of the abandoned buildings. So far, however, that idea was turning out to be a bust. Five been running in circles for an hour with nothing to show for it and nothing to make it entertaining—or at least, not spooky.

For the last half hour, she’d been surrounded only by the normal post-apocalyptic ambient sounds of houses left to stagnate: the jangling of the chain holding up a pub sign on the main road as it was pushed back and forth by the wind like a child’s swing; the grating, constant rasp of wind through the cracked panes of glass on almost every building; the distant caw of crows calling jubilantly to one another, unaware of the current state of the world. That last sound, at least, was a good sign; if there was a large horde or human activity around, they’d probably be quiet.

Hearing nothing from inside the house, Five knocked loudly on the door three times, then immediately ducked to crouch to one side of it, beneath one of the front windows. It was a trick Sara had taught her on their several missions together scouting out new houses for supplies. The noise may attract any zoms in the area, but at least you’ll be ready for them.

Five could practically hear Sara’s voice, which only served as a reminder of how utterly alone out here Five was.

_Well, maybe that’s for the best?_

Yikes. _Getting far too introspective there_ , Five chided herself.

Zombies. She meant zombies.

Sighing, Five tried the door. Locked. She knew Abel always kept safehouse keys on top of the doorframe, which she of course could not reach. Spotting a sturdy-looking planter pot, she flipped it upside down and perched on its base to retrieve the key.

Sam snickered slightly in her ear, and Five restrained herself from signaling him to shut up again. She really was on edge tonight.

Five got set up in the safe house without further incident, opening up the comm line to Sam again once she was sure there was nothing else moving in the house but her. Sam had her switch off her headset to save the power while Five downed a dinner of tinned green beans from the kitchen and a meal bar she’d brought in her pack. By the time she’d stretched and cleaned up as best she could in a house without running water, the silence was driving Five mad.

Five grabbed a couple bottles of water from the supply cache in the house and settled her headset back onto her ears as she climbed the stairs to the bedrooms.

“Are you still there, Sam?” Five asked softly.

It took a moment, but Sam’s voice came through—like it always did.

“Yeah, still here, Five—Runner Four’s just coming in from a longish supply run with Twenty-Two, but they’re home free and clear now. Everything alright?”

“Yeah,” Five replied. She didn’t have anything to say, in particular. She just wanted to pretend for a minute she wasn’t alone in a creepy abandoned house on Halloween while the walking dead staggered about outside waiting for any foolish little runners to stumble across them to descend upon with torn flesh and gnashing teeth—”

“Well, this is certainly in the spirit of Halloween,” Five said instead, sounding as chipper as you please. “I’d rather be at a costume party though, any day. I’ve always loved Halloween, I used to do multiple costumes a year…” Five realized she was rambling and stopped short, forgetting for a moment that Sam was the least likely person in the world to be bothered by chatter.

“Oh, yeah,” he said enthusiastically. “It was always so much fun trying to figure out what you could do with cardboard boxes and bedsheets at the uni parties. Probably spent more time figuring out what to wear than a lot of my homework assignments, if I’m being honest. I always loved the punny costumes—though that won’t be a shock to you, Five. What did you used to go as?”

Five hesitated, suddenly embarrassed to admit to Sam she’d usually been things like Hermione Granger or Tinkerbell. “Uh…sometimes I’d just do the classics. Vampire bride or wear a red choker and a dress and go as Anne Boleyn. Stuff like that.”

The two passed some time in comfortable conversation until Sam had brought Jody and Rowan in and needed to sign off for the night. Five had grabbed linens from the closet and made the bed she’d chosen, grumbling about the chore the whole time, and now sat staring out the window. It was a rather nice view across the rooftops of a row of houses in one direction. In the other, about a block away, Five could see one of those long, grand church fronts with a small spire and a large picture window. Even though it reminded her she was technically an expat, Five still loved how old and elegant buildings in England looked to her.

Less pleasantly, there was also a massive spiderweb across that window, hung thick with droplets of water from the mist that had begun to roll in. Five shuddered and went to close the curtains on that side. She _hated_ spiders. Before she could block out the view, however, she caught a hint of movement in the space beside the church. Five looked closer, leaning closer to the dreaded web to figure out what she’d seen. There it was, again – a shadow of a movement, low to the ground, tiny. An animal of some sort. It crossed in front of the beige stonework making up the church’s front, and that was the final clue.

Five knew she shouldn’t. She knew it was risky, that she should at least call someone on the backup comms system to let them know she was going to leave the safehouse. Jack and Eugene were probably on the air, so they’d see her headset receiver light up.

But it was only a block away. The whole town was dead—permanently, not in the back-to-eat-you kind of way—and she had a pistol.

Five padded down the stairs quickly, shoving her feet back into her running shoes and yanking a light jacket from her running pack. She jogged silently around the house, keeping her gaze loosely focused as she approached the church to better pick up any hints of movement.

There. The shadows shifted to her right as she reached the stone edifice. A small black blur moving across a light grey cobbled path to dart behind an upturned stone slab—a graveyard.

Of course it was a graveyard.

Counterintuitively, graveyards were not known to be usual zombie hotspots, as the recently infected weren’t exactly going to dig around for dead flesh when there were runners around the chase. Still, there were a lot of obstacles in her path, so Five moved slowly and cautiously. Five stopped near where she’d seen the animal last, turning on her headlamp to pierce through the shadows.

Two yellow eyes reflected the light back with an eerily bright glow. Five blinked. The animal yowled at her.

It was a black cat Five had been following, crouched defensively at the base of a gravestone. Five stayed perfectly still, admiring its sleek black fur. Clearly this one was a good hunter—the cat seemed well-fed. Which was impressive, since Five could also make out the metallic glint of a collar tag hanging beneath the feline’s chin.

Five extended a hand and waiting, making a kissing noise with her tongue against the roof of her mouth. The cat eyed her suspiciously for a while, making no move to respond. Five sat cross-legged on the path, content to wait and watch for a while, even if nothing came of it.

Suddenly, there was the familiar snap of a tree branch from somewhere deeper in the graveyard. Five and the cat both froze, listening intently.

Another snap, the same direction as the first.

Five leapt to her feet and took off out of the graveyard, back towards the safe house. She wasn’t sure if it was an animal or a zom, but she didn’t plan to stick around to find out. She felt bad about leaving the cat, but, well. The cat honestly had a better chance out there.

Five skidded to a halt at the door of the house, fumbling with the lock. She practically dove into the foyer, whirling to close the door behind her—

More movement up the path, closing in behind her.

The cat had _followed_ her back. Clearly, it had figured Five seemed to know a better place to be.

Without looking up at Five, the cat sprinted into the door after Five, running to shelter under some distant part of furniture. Befuddled, Five closed and bolted the door behind her.

And that was how Runner Five returned from a solo mission on Halloween, from House 13 in an abandoned town, in the middle of the zombie apocalypse, with a black graveyard cat nestled in her backpack.


End file.
